The Main Receptors Involved with COVID-19: a Systematic Review and Meta-analysis.

Câmara, Alice Barros; Brandão, Igor Augusto

OBJECTIVE This review aims to study the receptor's family and functions most related to COVID-19 infection, also suggesting the tissue and cell location that the majority of COVID-19 receptors are mainly expressed. METHODS This systematic review (PROSPERO: CRD42020210643) is according to PRISMA guidelines. PubMed, Cochrane, SciELO, Lilacs, Web of Science, and DOAJ databases were used. Clinical trials and research articles studying receptors related to COVID-19 were included in this review. R programming language was used to elaborate charts and receptors network and SPSS(26v) software was used to perform statistical analyses. RESULTS The majority of studies regarding the involvement of receptors in COVID-19 included plasma receptors and G protein-coupled receptor families (p<0.05). These receptors are highly expressed in the brain (24%) and 80% of them can interact with each other in a protein network, exerting some regulatory effects in various tissues. The main influential receptor on the network of receptors involved in COVID-19 was the EGFR and the majority of receptors were associated with pathological processes in the disease (p<0.05), including the amplification of inflammatory responses in COVID-19, which may be related to neurological disorders in some cases. Humans from the United States, Spain, and Brazil were the most used model in studies adressing receptors involved in COVID-19 (p<0.05). CONCLUSIONS Plasma receptors and G protein-coupled receptors, especially the EGFR, and involved with pathological effects on the COVID-19 inflammatory process in the brain have shown significant importance in this review.